Game Nights at Aunt Carol’s
I always loved and had a healthy fear of my Aunt Carol. Although she was not always outwardly affectionate, I knew she cared about all us nieces and nephews and it showed in how her door was always open to us to come hang out and play games or stay at her house if anyone or their friends needed a place to sleep. My memories of her include the many pieces of colored fabrics she collected and the quilts she crafted from hand. They include her willingness to let you eat her last piece of bread or drink her last cup of milk. How much she looked like grandpa to me. How different from her brothers and sisters she was, yet how much like a Nicoll she seemed at the same time. Fierce and independent is how I think of her, with a dose of melancholy. I always respected her. And because she lived in Ramah I was lucky to get to know her kids the best of all my cousins, especially Tanya who was closest in age to me and forged a close friendship with me as an adult.
My picture I am sharing is one of the only ones I have of Aunt Carol and me together, but it was a very fond memory from 2002 when I had come to town for a quick visit with Tanya to meet Tony, and to meet up with my brother Jed who I barely knew at the time. We met at Aunt Carol’s house and played Pictionary. And we joked and told stories and laughed a lot. It is a fond memory for me and a rare moment of having my aunt sit down with us to play and feeling very close and connected. And it was Tanya that was able to get us all together for that shared moment.